One of the things that scares me away from the Anglican Church is the prayer book service. The unfamiliarity with the sitting, the standing, the kneeling, the recitation, the call/response, pretty much fills me with dread. Consequently my default position towards the recitation of common prayers and creeds is an upturned lip sneer. It has lately become apparent as I study at an Anglican Bible College that to maintain this position will result in a long four years. So with Sarah's encouragement I have stowed away the sneer until we have an opportunity to think about the purpose of these traditions later in college life as we study 'church history'. Which interestingly is where I believe the prayer book should permanently remain.
This morning during our chapel service there was cause to give brief thanks to God for musicians. Not that they were doing anything, it's that I wish they were. There is something unsurprisingly dry and disatisfying about the monotone communal reading of Psalm 47.
47:1 Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah
5 God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!
8 God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
9 The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!
Some words just need to be sung.
To be clear this is not a case for chanting the prayer book.
some things that should never be done away with from the church life are the prayer book and the organ. but on the prayer book... it has contributed towards the preservation of good doctrine, and has also established the orders of service for marriage, baptism, etc. the anglican diocese of sydney has brought out a contemporary prayer book, which doesn't have all the upping and downing, but just the really common orders of service.
ReplyDeleteand... those who don't know their history are bound to repeat the mistakes of history
p.s. maybe you should try and get some blokes chanting such psalms gregorian chant style
Hi Wei-Li, Thanks for your comments mate. Yeah I'm certain from what I know about the prayer book that it was integral in the proclamation and protection of the gospel. I'm a huge fan of church history for the reason you detail. I also think it's good praying prayers which people have thought deeply on in the past.
ReplyDeleteYet thinking evangelistically - if I'm freaked out as a guy who has a church background, I can't imagine what it must feel like to others.
hey zac, these are my thoughts.
ReplyDeletehttp://jwaddell.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/empty-words-or-empty-structure/